On This Day
1860 – The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolete.
HMS Warrior is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate[Note 1] built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1861. She was the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships, and were built in response to France’s launching in 1859 of the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the wooden-hulled Gloire. Warrior conducted a publicity tour of Great Britain in 1863 and spent her active career with the Channel Squadron. Obsolescent following the 1871 launching of the mastless and more capable HMS Devastation, she was placed in reserve in 1875, and was “paid off” – decommissioned – in 1883.
She subsequently served as a storeship and depot ship, and in 1904 was assigned to the Royal Navy’s torpedo training school. The ship was converted into an oil jetty in 1927 and remained in that role until 1979, at which point she was donated by the Navy to the Maritime Trust for restoration. The restoration process took eight years, during which many of her features and fittings were either restored or recreated. When this was finished she returned to Portsmouth as a museum ship. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Warrior has been based in Portsmouth since 1987.
Born On This Day
1923 – Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, French mathematician and physicist
Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (French: [bʁy.a]; born 29 December 1923 in Lille) is a French mathematician and physicist. Her work lies in the intersection of mathematics and physics, notably in Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. She is one of the pioneers of the study of General relativity, and she is particularly known as the first to prove the well Posedness of the Einstein equations. Her works were applied in the detection of the gravitational waves.
She was the first woman to be elected to the Académie des Sciences Française (“French Academy of Sciences”) and is a Grand Officier of the Légion d’honneur.[1]
FYI
By Margalit Fox: Larry Eisenberg, 99, Dead; His Limericks Were Very Well Read
Lawrence Eisenberg (December 21, 1919[1] – December 25, 2018) was an American biomedical engineer and science fiction writer. He is best known for his short story “What Happened to Auguste Clarot?”, published in Harlan Ellison’s anthology Dangerous Visions. Eisenberg’s stories have also been printed in a number of leading science fiction magazines, including The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, and Asimov’s Science Fiction. His stories have been reprinted in anthologies such as Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century, The 10th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F, and Great Science Fiction By the World’s Great Scientists. He is also known for the limericks he posted in the comments sections of various articles in The New York Times.[2]
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BBC News: Norman Gimbel, award-winning lyricist, dies aged 91
By William Hughes: R.I.P. Norman Gimbel, Oscar-winning lyricist of everything from “The Girl From Ipanema” to the Happy Days theme
By Elizabeth Werth: Britain’s Most Accomplished Female Racer is The Name Behind Hillclimb’s “Burt Strut”
Patricia Mary “Patsy” Burt (10 July 1928, Chelsea, London – 4 October 2001) was a British motor racing driver.
During a long and varied career, Patsy Burt won many British national-level competitions, and was the first female driver ever to win the Brighton Speed Trials and the RAC National Sprint Championship. Her run at Brighton in 1968 set a new outright course record, which went unbeaten until 1975. She was also, in 1961, the first British driver of either sex to participate in a full season of the European Mountain Championship. For nearly three decades, Patsy Burt’s powder-blue racing cars were a familiar sight, usually placed well up the leader board, at most British hillclimb and sprint races.
Her 42 outright victories and nearly 100 national, international, and ladies’ records make Patsy Burt one of the most successful British female racing drivers of all time. Her achievements earned her membership of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, an institution few women are ever invited to join.
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By Elizabeth Werth: Collision Warning Systems Originated in the 1959 Cadillac Cyclone
Harley J. Earl (November 22, 1893 – April 10, 1969) was an American automotive designer and business executive. He was the initial designated head of design at General Motors, later becoming vice president, the first top executive ever appointed in design of a major corporation in American history. He was an industrial designer and a pioneer of modern transportation design. A coachbuilder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of freeform sketching and hand sculpted clay models as automotive design techniques. He subsequently introduced the “concept car” as both a tool for the design process and a clever marketing device.
Earl’s Buick Y-Job was the first concept car. He started “Project Opel”, which eventually became the Chevrolet Corvette, and he authorized the introduction of the tailfin to automotive styling. During World War II, he was an active contributor to the Allies’ research and development program in advancing the effectiveness of camouflage.
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By David Tracy: The Aftermarket Is Fixing Mazda’s Mistake of Not Including Vent Windows on Old Miatas
The Life of a Conflicted Teacher: Friday Thoughts: The World Needs More…..
By Fred Lambert: Watch Tesla Model 3 being assembled from start to finish
By John W. Schoen, Lauren Thomas: Here’s a map of the 80 Sears and Kmart stores closing in March
Your car caught fire, we’re giving you the exact same model?
By Keith Eldridge | KOMO News: New dad gets surprise after driving burning car out of hospital
Trent’s car was a BMW 528. The owner of Sunset Auto Wholesale in Tacoma, Nathan Craig, heard about what happened from Trent’s brother Tony Gordon, one of his salesmen. They happened to have the same model on the lot so Craig decided to donate it to Trent.
By Joe Douglass, KATU News: Kent man kicked out of Portland hotel to file racial discrimination suit
BBC News Florida school shooting: New video shows ‘blunders’
Webneel: 15 Beautiful Macro Photographs by famous Indonesian photographer Abdul Gapur Dayak
Long Shot: My Life As a Sniper in the Fight Against ISIS Hardcover – 14 Feb 2019
by Azad Cudi (Author)
The incredible inside story of a Kurdish sniper in the battle against ISIS
As Syria imploded in civil war in 2011, Kurdish volunteers in the north rose up to free their homeland from centuries of repression and create a progressive sanctuary of tolerance and democracy. To the medievalists of ISIS, this was an affront, so they amassed 10,000 men, heavy artillery, tanks, mortars and ranks of suicide bombers to crush the uprising. Against them stood 2,500 volunteer fighters armed with 40-year-old rifles. There was only one way for the Kurds to survive. They would have to kill the invaders one by one.
A decade earlier, as a 19-year-old Iranian army conscript, Azad had been forced to fight his own people. Instead he deserted and sought asylum in Britain. Now, as he returned to his homeland to help build a new Kurdistan, he found he would have to pick up a gun once more. In September 2014, Azad became one of 17 snipers deployed when ISIS besieged the northern city of Kobani.
In LONG SHOT, Azad tells the inside story of how a group of activists and intellectuals built their own army and team of snipers, and then fought off a ferocious assault in nine months of bitter and bloody street battles. By turns searing, stirring, inspiring and poetic, this is an unique account of modern war and of how, against all odds, a few thousand men and women achieved the impossible and kept their dream of freedom alive.
Gastro Obscura: The centuries-old tradition of toasting with actual toast, 2019 Food Festivals and more ->
By Paris Martineau and Louise Matsakis: Why It’s Hard to Escape Amazon’s Long Reach
By Bill Owens Out of the Ordinary: 1994 Cadillac De Ville Flower
Ideas
By Hometalk Highlights: 14 Winter Planter Ideas for When You’re Missing Your Garden These planters will brighten up your day when you’re feeling those winter blues.
Lora Taylor Hyatt Hometalker Prattsville, AR: No More Coconut Liners for My Hanging Baskets!
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 25 November 25, 2024Picture of the day Papaya fruits in a grocery store. Colatina, Espírito Santo, Brazil.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 24 November 24, 2024Picture of the day The Scroll of Eighty-Seven Immortals, drawn by an unknown painter, measuring 30cm high and 292cm wide, is a line-drawing Chinese figure painting. Drawn on a long silk scroll with lines, the painting depicts 87 taoist immortals, including three supreme gods with halo, ten divine generals, seven deities and 67 celestial maidens […]
Recipes
Coleen’s Recipes: GREEN BEANS and BACON
My Recipe Treasures: Cranberry Guacamole
By Connie Vines: Perfect Cake for Holidays
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